Alison Redford's defeated agriculture minister should get a real job

Evan Berger was the agriculture minister until the spring election, when he lost his seat. Now he's been appointed a senior policy adviser to the department's deputy minister, a position that pays between $120,158 and $157,910, plus pension and benefits.

Albertans who have expressed concern about the appointment of former agriculture minister Evan Berger to a cushy job with his former helper have been accused of faux outrage. Let’s be clear: it’s not false outrage, it’s the real deal.

The fact that conflict of interest guidelines were written to prevent exactly this sort of injustice should have been a clue to any right thinking person in the Conservative government or the highly politicized civil service. If his appointment is allowed to stand, it will be a black mark on not only the Tories, but on all Albertans for allowing such a perverse outcome.

For those not entirely familiar with the matter, Berger was the agriculture minister until the spring election, when he lost his seat. Now he’s been appointed as a senior policy adviser to deputy minister of agriculture John Knapp, a position that pays between $120,158 and $157,910, plus pension and benefits.

The appointment needed the approval of the province’s ethics commissioner.

The Herald reported earlier this week that Alberta’s conflict of interest legislation spells out that former ministers face a one-year period where they are forbidden to “solicit or accept a contract or benefit from a department of the public service or a provincial agency with which the former minister had significant official dealings” during their final year in cabinet. It sounds like gibberish, but read it again.

Can it be any more clear than that? To add insult to injury, Berger says he’ll remain a Tory party member, will likely remain politically active and may try to regain his seat in the next election. Nice.

“Where it’s clear given the criteria you’re looking for — in other words, the deep policy knowledge, the experience, the ability to integrate issues in a way that clearly Mr. Berger has demonstrated in the past — holding a competition wastes public dollars, wastes time and effort, and is highly inefficient,” said Knapp, who served as Berger’s top public service official when he was in cabinet, reported the Herald.

Setting the bafflegab aside for the moment, Knapp’s nonsense could be said of any defeated Tory cabinet minister. The public hopes they have a measure of competence and might well know a little bit about their portfolio. Are we going to allow every defeated cabinet minister to land in a public service position that pays within spitting distance of what they were making as an elected official?

If that’s the standard, we wouldn’t even bother with costly elections in Alberta. We’d just hand over the keys and the cash to the Tories and be on our way. Knapp shows a tremendous amount of disregard for Albertans. It’s insulting.

Berger’s hometown newspaper, the Nanton News, offers a glimpse of what’s afoot: “As to what the job entails, Berger says that this is yet to be fleshed out,” said the newspaper.

“A letter of that is forthcoming on what the work will be,” the newspaper quotes Berger as saying. It all sounds like very important work — once they figure out what it is.

Quite naturally, there are now questions being raised about the impartiality of ethics commissioner Neil Wilkinson, who was chairman of the former Capital Health Region. His official website says he’s committed to lifelong learning. It’s a pity Albertans are paying the price until he gets it right.

“It’s so troubling the ethics commissioner waived a blatant conflict. That’s why that rule is there, to stop that exact thing from happening,” said Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson.

“You can’t have a politician get kicked out of office and then be hired back by his department a couple months later. It’s just beyond belief, frankly.”

During what should be a quiet summer of barbecues and happy diversions, the Redford Tories continue to show contempt for democracy and a flair for entitlement.

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